McCorkell ready for second appearance in Sochi

February 19, 2014 07:28 am

Jenna McCorkell openly admits she wasn’t ready to make her Winter Olympic debut four years ago – but with an outing already under her belt in Sochi she’s out to impress.

McCorkell, an 11-time British ladies champion, made her Games bow in Vancouver in 2010 however she only contested the short program after a fall and placed 29th out of the 30 that skated.

However she put to bed those bad Winter Olympic memories after an outing in the first ever team event to be held at the Games during the first weekend as she scored 50.09 for her short program.

McCorkell begins her ladies’ individual campaign with the short program, 11 days after that skate, and is confident, unlike Vancouver, she can keep smiling in Sochi.

"I wasn't really ready four years ago but I've came in here knowing my practices have been going very well and I feel more confident,” said McCorkell.

“I knew I could do it in the team event and I’m over the moon to have skated like that. I got a little buzz after landing two early triples.

“I knew I could land them, I do them day in, day out in practice but you’ve got to do it at right moment too.

“There is room to improve for the individual event and I was excited to go back to work in training but I can't wait to get out again.

“The two biggest elements are at the start of my programme. We’ve got to improve the spins and we can work on the technical side of things.”

McCorkell will be hoping to do enough to advance from the short program to Thursday’s free skate – and she isn’t short of inspiration or motivation.

“The experience has been fantastic so far, I’ve had so much support, it gives you such a lift," she said. “I’ve got a lot of cards with me and I took a look at them before I left and knew they were with me.

“I’m very happy that I finally really enjoyed an Olympic skate and hopefully there are two more performances like that to come.”